|
Harmless
By Brett Neveu
Directed by Edward Sobel
At Timeline Theatre
615 W. Wellington
Chicago, IL
Call 773-281-8463, tickets $25
Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 pm
Sundays at 2 pm
Special Wednesdays at 8 pm
February 21, 28, March 7 & 14
Running time is 55 minutes with no intermission
Through March 18, 2007
Troubling sign of the times drama thought provoking
Brett Neveu, an acclaimed Chicago playwright, has been described as a “master at establishing mood” (Chicago Sun-Times) who writes blistering dialogue with complex characters in haunting looks at Midwest America. He has amassed an impressive body of work including Heritage, American Dead, 4 Murders and Eric Larue among others. His play, Harmless, now in a brilliant, swift production at Timeline Theatre, is a gripping three-character work about the perception of a crisis on a small Midwestern college campus.
A creative writing professor, Jim McFehren (David Parkes) is called to the college president’s office for questioning. President Wesson (John Jenkins in a powerfully scary performance) is a master bureaucrat in touch with everything politically correct. He lives in an ordered world where his judgment dominates. In a time of worry over troubled students, one of Jim’s creative writing students, an Army Iraq War veteran, writes a fiction story about killings, rape and atrocities. This assignment attracts the attention of the campus security and the college’s president. The US Army is informed because the college fears that the student may be troubled by PSTD, (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). Lieutenant Mindy Ergenbright, US Army (Juliet Hart) arrives to do a psychological evaluation of the student.
The riveting and troubling drama unfolds as the college president is determined to maneuver the removal of the student and possibly the writing professor for indirectly motivating the student to stretch his creative writing. Filled with scorching dialogue and clever twists, Harmless is a warning against societies misunderstanding of the effects of war trauma on returning soldiers. Is this student a threat due to repressed aggression for his wartime experiences or is he simply an imaginative writer? 
We see the college professor trying to remove the student because he fears the remote possibility that he may act out violently the things he wrote. The writing professor backs the student until his tenure at the college is threatened. The Army psychologist offers the most sober analysis but she is out maneuvered by the deft college professor.
This troubling play will leave you debating the issues presented especially as thousands of war-scared soldiers return from Iraq and Afghanistan. Director Edward Sobel lets Neveu’s intelligent script unfolds with its stinging subtly that emphasizes the complexity of unfounded fears and political attitudes. This play is a wakeup call for all of us. It is also a chilling theatre work.
Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date Reviewed: January 20, 2007
|
